Cause Marketing

I define Cause Marketing|Branding as a business strategy that helps an organization stand for a focused social issue(s) aligned with its business to gain significant bottom-line and social impacts while making an emotional and relevant connection with stakeholders.

Effective Cause Marketing|Branding improves your reputation, enhances guest loyalty, builds employee morale and solidifies relationships with key stakeholders. Businesses today are embracing a new set of issues to support based upon where they can have the greatest and most sustainable impact. We believe more and more businesses will embrace socially-aligned business initiatives. These are long-term, multidimensional strategies in which a business commits to a key issue not only to drive social change, but also because the issue they stand for aligns with their business objectives and values.

So, what do you stand for?

More than two-thirds of Americans say they consider a company’s business practices when deciding what to buy, according to the 2007 Cone Cause Evolution Survey. The latest study in Cone’s 14 years of Cause Branding and corporate responsibility research indicates an evolution in consumer thinking about the ways businesses interact with society.

Operators who want to connect their values with community efforts can look at the latest findings of an 11-year research poll for a solution. The 2004 Cone Corporate Citizenship Study shows that eight in 10 Americans say that corporate support of causes wins their trust in that company, a 21 percent increase.

Today, all businesses must express their humanity and values in authentic and emotionally compelling ways to reach their guests, employees, partners, communities and other stakeholders.

We’re recognized for our work on behalf of clients in creating and implementing substantive cause initiatives.

I work extensively with corporations and leading nonprofit organizations on the national, regional or local levels to develop transformational business and social impact for my clients.

I am a leader in establishing such relationships and expertise.

Relationships I have helped clients establish include:

• The Make-A-Wish Foundation
• The North Carolina Children’s Home Society
• The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation
• The Children’s Miracle Network
• Dozens of other local, regional and national charities.

As with all marketing programs, the value will vary depending on how you need to build your program.